Category: Chilly.

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One of the five Pawpaw seeds I bought now have a tiny root, so I have sown it in a big pot and can place it outdoors as soon as nights get a bit warmer.

For once we didn’t have frost last night but instead we had hard northern winds blowing so that sort of evened it all out 🙂 Sunshine all day with the exception smaller clouds passing in the sky in front of the sun. It was pretty nice as long as one kept away from the wind and stayed in the sunshine 🙂 Pretty tricky when being out on walks though but worked pretty good in the garden. For once the wind blew from a direction where it actually can reach my garden but the cottage managed to block most of it 🙂

The wind is icy cold so it was rather nasty when we walked in the open fields but as soon as we reached the creek and then in to the forest it changed dramatically, even in those places the sun couldn’t reach us. We’ll get a couple of nights with cold nights but the days will get warmer and warmer again. My kitchen door is towards south and the wind comes from north so I can have it open all day thankfully. Both the little monster and the dogs can walk in and out as they please and the cottage gets rid of all the winter air with is quite nice 🙂

The monster had a little break on top of the grape vine 🙂

Yesterday I cut down the Amur grape vine I had outside my kitchen, where all the birds sat while waiting for their turn to eat by the feeder. It didn’t give many grapes to be honest and since dogs shouldn’t eats grapes I just thought it best to remove it. It was a bit too easy to be honest and most of the vines seemed dead, I could only see buds on a few of the vines. Now I need to plant something else  there so that the birds can be protected from raptor birds while they sit and wait for their turn.

Lots of stack ants walking around on the ant stack .

I do have a lot of apricot trees now so it will most likely be one of those, Apricots are really hardy, the problem is that they flower no matter what weather we’re having so it can be really warm or winter and they just don’t care 🙂 🙂 So if one wants the apricots up here in the north one better be prepared to protect those flowers from cold weather 🙂 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I have baked some rolls but they sort of flattened out 🙂 🙂 The taste is just the same though so that doesn’t matter 🙂

Have a great day!

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Lets hope the new neighbours are good ones.

It continued to snow here well in to the after noon today, thankfully the flakes were tiny so we didn’t get that much more on the ground. The snow actually started to melt on the south side of the cottage during the day but tonight they say will be nasty cold, down to -10C (14F) It will rise to above 0C (32F) during the day though but Saturday will be even warmer so I changed my plans on going to the grocery store tomorrow and go on Saturday instead.

We’re getting new neighbours again. The Beekeeper moved since they rented and the owner was too greedy to give them a fair prise. All we know so far about these new neighbours is that they’ll be renting and possibly buy later but I’m afraid it will be the same outcome again. The place isn’t worth half of what the owner wants to be payed for it. I do hope they like dogs since they most likely will have a visit from my two 🙂 🙂 🙂

The monster kitten hasn’t shown any interest at all in going out to the cold snow again 🙂 🙂 I think that one time will stay in her mind quite some time. I guess that she will mostly stay indoors next winter when it snows again but then again memory can be short lived so she might go out the first time it snows again 🙂

I was filling in a job application today but hit a wall 🙂 They wanted my high school  grades! It is soon 42 years ago that I graduated from high school and I know I have them somewhere but not where 🙂 🙂 🙂 It sort of feels like they only look for young people 🙂 🙂 🙂 If I find them I will fill in the application anyway. I have a very small cottage with few places to store anything and yet I can’t find anything here 🙂 🙂 🙂

It is time to bake some rolls and have that first warm one with a cup of tea. Is there anything tastier than that first warm slice of bread, preferable with cheese that slowly melts?

Have a great day!

I should have used one more egg.

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So they said the sun would make an appearance in the afternoon today, it didn’t. They are saying we’ll have sunshine all day tomorrow and I’ll believe it if it happens 🙂 🙂 Still we had a really nice walk this morning, yes alma did pull the leash a lot but she didn’t whine! I’ve noticed that I’m much more patient with her when she doesn’t whine, that sound eats its way in to the brain and slices it into pieces and when she doesn’t whine I’m not that hard on her when she pulls the leash 🙂

 

The hunters were supposed to be here both yesterday and today but I don’t think anyone showed up, the weather hasn’t been with them at all. They were supposed to hunt for hares but I have barely seen even one since last summer. The hare plague comes and goes here so I guess it was here this summer and now it’ll take a few years until they’ve grown in numbers again. We humans can actually get the hare plague via mosquito bites and it can end badly as we also can get vole fever and that can also end badly. Vole fever thankfully only if one get rid of their droppings and don’t wear a face mask. Starts like a cold and after that it just goes down hill.

I made a shrimp and vegetable pie today. The pie crust was excellent and didn’t sink a bit but the filling never really got thicker. The taste however was really yummy so I had no problems eating it 🙂 🙂 🙂 I think I had an egg too little for the filling. I didn’t want a huge pie, after all it is only for me so I reduced the ingredients with a third, I shouldn’t have done that with the egg I think 🙂 🙂 but the taste is the only thing that matters to be honest, so I could actually say that today I had a soup pie 🙂 🙂 🙂

I’ve had a little setback with the flu today, I started to boil when we were out on our morning walk and the coughing has been worse. I also have a slight headache but I think that one comes from our walks and Almas’ pulling the leash, she is rather erratic and open never knows when she’ll try and run forward in high speed 🙂 🙂 🙂 

The Monster kitten is attacking poor Malkolm ferociously.

and Alma is so happy that it isn’t her 🙂

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that fixing the dishes awaits.

Have a great day!

After that she had a well deserved nap 🙂

More snow to melt away.

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it was just grey and dull when we went out on our morning walk and from that it went downhill. First some lighter snow with tiny snow flies that couldn’t be seen when they landed on the ground, then rather big and lots  of them that really showed on the ground and then it started to rain. Still lots of snow on the ground but hopefully those slightly higher temperatures they’ve been talking about will arrive as they’re guessing.

I can never capture this old tree trunk properly but I still keep on trying 🙂

Canada geese, many of them refuse to leave when the nasty weather comes.

Besides that very little has happened, the most exiting being that the dogs and I had pancakes for lunch 🙂 The dogs are bored but every time they go outside they want to go inside again. So we have most been indoors being inactive watching tv or napping. The monster cat was active for a while though, one could think that if she tries to do a thing on and on again and fail she finally would understand that it won’t work next time either. I don’t know how many times she failed to pass an orchid by the windows and both she and the poor plant have fallen down to the floor 🙂 🙂

I guess it is time for that last cup of tea for the day but today I’ll try and stay awake since it’s a weekly science program I want to watch, they re-run it several time but for some reason I’ll still miss it if I don’t watch it the first time they show it 🙂

Have a great day!

There’s always a way.

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Computers are great to have, computers can be really fun but computers that behaves like they want to is a really big pain in the a..e 🙂 🙂 Well it isn’t the computer but the photo editing program. I really don’t want to do anything but reduce the size both in pixel size and MB size but it refuses to do the latter. I’ve figured out a way to go around this problem but it takes so much longer time.

I have a slight problem with what photos I post because the icons are so small and I can’t find anywhere to make them bigger in this folder so I can only hope I put in the better ones 🙂 🙂 🙂

Well life could be worse and I do have lots of time now days. Still really annoying. The hunters should have been here today but so far no one has arrived, so we had a walk in the forest and down to the creek. I figured that if they would come we still most likely already had come down to the creek and soon out of their way anyway. A bit windy but much calmer than the previous days.

I haven’t been totally idle today though, I did some laundry for instance. Now that doesn’t sound like a lot of work but I have a sort of manual washing machine. My bathroom is so small that I can’t fit in a normal sized one but since I’m not a big fan of washing laundry by hand I bought one that fits in a caravan. That means that I need to fill up water for washing and rinsing the laundry, no big deal, what is a bit annoying is that when the clothes are going to be centrifuged I need to move it to the built in centrifuge and load it by hand so that it is in balance, if I fail it’ll sound as if the centrifuge is on its way to fly out the cottage all by itself 🙂 🙂  I’ve had it like this for rather many years now so I’ve learned how to do it but still 🙂 🙂

I’ve also baked some French rolls, how much can one change the recipe without having to change the name? 🙂 🙂 I almost always use different flour and sometimes I have cheese in it as well. Turned out really well this time. A warm roll with melting cheese on it is hard to beat 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll keep on doing some laundry, I’m a bit behind, and after that the dogs and I will have pancakes for dinner, I’ve just bought a Black berry jam just for that 🙂

The beavers are back 🙂

It is time to get that last cup of tea for the day and I’ll most likely fall asleep in the sofa after that 🙂

Have a great day!

Snow and rain.

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Just a short one today, the weather is not nice and hasn’t been all day. Very windy with both rain and snow. It hasn’t at all been as warm as they  guessed yesterday so most snow is still on the ground and it’s impossible to walk outside without getting soaking wet. WE. have been in the garden though but the dogs have just done what they need and then wanted to go back indoors again 🙂

In any photo editor I know of in a PC the original photos that one has placed in a file they stay there no matter what one does with the copies we make to put in social media, that’s not the case in a Mac 🙂 🙂 If I reduce size in the copy the size will also be reduced on the original and if I delete that copy so will the original be deleted as well 🙂 🙂 🙂 So today I learned that I need to make a special file for the originals and place that file outside photos, a bit complicated to be honest 🙂 I’m learning more and more every day now 🙂

Have a great day!

Even I thought the weather was nice :-)

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So the hunters were supposed to be here at something we call Förmiddag (pree dinner, which is the same as pre noon which means around 9:30-10:00) but they all arrived just after 11 am 🙂 I couldn’t really walk out in to the forest just in case they would come but I still wanted to have a walk with the dogs because we had a rather nice snowfall, I guess You all now became a bit surprised by me saying that since I really don’t like snow 🙂 🙂  but it was 0C (32F) and no wind to talk about so even I fell for the charm of a light snowfall 🙂

But instead of walking in to the forest we walked down on the road we usually comes home on when we’ve been down to the creek, so today Malcolm had the chance of running leash free at the start of our walk 🙂  We did however not follow the road down to the creek but instead turned left, a road we used to walk a lot until two dogs just as bad as Alma 🙂 🙂 🙂 moved in to a tiny cottage at the end of the road. Too much struggle to go through every time we would have passed. Now days there’s only one dog left there and so much easier to pass, especially since there now is a huge pile of dirt blocking the view for both the dog in the garden there and my two 🙂

The rest of the day has mostly been spent eating dinner, watching the British Antiques Roadshow and looking for a job on the online employment agency. Unfortunately they are now looking for people to work during the summer months, perhaps jobs lasting two to four months but I did find several interesting of those but also a couple of long lasting jobs as well. The ads will be up for at least two more weeks which is good because when I was about to apply for them I realised that my CV, is it called that in English, where You write down something about Yourself and Your work experience? is in my old computer that I so conveniently picked down today 🙂 🙂 🙂 So either  I’ll have to start up the old computer again or write a new one 🙂 🙂 I’ll see what program there is in this computer, must be something like word I guess 🙂

Only ten more days and then we’ll enter February, the next  to most boring month in the year 🙂 It is at least short and that’s when we finally starts to see the change in daylight here. I have a problem in my cool cellar, yesterday when I walked down there I met a foul metal smell on my way down, one of my plant light had died so now I only have one left. Well there is another I can use but it eat electricity lie an elephant drinks water. It is an older quicksilver lamp that also becomes so warm that anything closer than 50 cm (20 inches) will be burned 🙂 🙂 I remember one winter when it was really cold outside and the cellar suddenly had a few degrees lower temperature than 0C (32F) (not a good thing since my water pipes does there) I just turned on that lamp and suddenly it was well over instead 🙂 🙂 Probably good for the cellar but that was back when electricity was cheap.

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and after that I don’t know, I’ll see if there’s anything worth watching on tv, probably not 🙂

Tiny snowflakes on the Cypress.

Have a great day!

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It has been a rather nice day with lots of sunshine and below freezing temperatures until noon, after that it has been grey and dull.. Most of the snow is now gone, instead we have ice 🙂 except for where the sun has reached, the snow is still there but was so hard that even I could walk on it!

     

We walked down to the creek and thankfully, even though I do like having horses working in the forest, the horse guy and his horses were elsewhere today. So much easier to walk with Alma, especially on slippery ice 🙂 🙂 We managed to have our walk despite ice and lots of pulling the leash from them both. It will stay above 0 C (32 F) both night and day for seven days they’re guessing so that ice will probably melt away in the shadowy parts as well.

     

After that I’ve tried to understand the new computer 🙂 I wanted to see something on tv today so I had to do it via the computer. So I installed SVT (Swedish television) play, easy done but since I don’t have any speaker I then logged in to SVT Radio to get some sound via my phone, It was ski Biathlon I wanted to watch and it is a so popular sport here that they have it on both radio and tv at the same time. What I didn’t know was that the tv was around 10 minutes after the radio so when they said what was happening on the radio it still hadn’t happened on tv, very odd 🙂 🙂 🙂 So I had to download SVT play on my phone so that I could get the sound and picture right 🙂 🙂

     

I also downloaded my photos to the new computer, I can see why professional photographer wants that program, the photos are so clear that it is amazing! However the program is anything but user friendly 🙂 🙂 🙂 Downloading the photos was easy but then trying to create an album took around twenty minutes before I figured it out, the problem was that it seemed impossible to get those photos in to the new album 🙂 🙂  Took ten minutes to figure that out as well 🙂 I only down size my photos and that should be easy enough but oh no. I had to check how many MB it was after I tried it because I’m used to PC 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still don’t know if I have saved it because no such question popped up 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

I’ve stopped trying for the day so now I’ll go downstairs and have one of my newly baked rolls and then I’ll read a book 🙂 No tea now, I drank some too late yesterday and didn’t sleep much last night 🙂

     

Have a great day!

Low flying mist here and there on our walk.

     

I wish You all a Good Yule!

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A Green Finch, haven’t seen many of those so far.

 

We Swedes are sort of obcessed by Disney today and it has been so for generations. Swedish Television (SWT), our Pbs, has since 1960 sent an old Disney program called The Wonderful World of Disney. 2020 it became the most viewed tv program ever in this country when almost half the population looked at it on Christmas eve. Back at the beginning anything coming from west of the Soviet Union was view as imperialistic and should be banned from the world 🙂 🙂 🙂 So this was the only time we ever had the chance to see anything Disney on tv, we only had Swedish Television in those days and no commercials (that I still love 🙂 )

     

Despite what all experts have said it is still just as popular and that’s of course because we brainwash the kids to watch it as well, even though they later refuse to see it they always come back when they have children so they too becomes brainwashed to see it. Disney now has its own streaming service and doesn’t sell their programs to other companies any more, except for this one and the SWT 🙂 but from what I’ve read the negotiations are hard every year. The risk for Disney being punished by the Swedes if they don’t sell this particular program to SWT is very big though, You don’t kill very popular traditions like that unpunished 🙂 

     

The program is almost totally exactly the same, First we see when the elves make the presents up at the north pole, a film from the 1930’s I think and now days they’ve removed almost all racist parts 🙂 After that we see short parts from Cinderella (when the mice and birds sing and make her the dress. Snow white when she and the dwarfs are having a party singing and dancing. Chip and Dale when Mickey Mouse by accident brings them in when he has cut his christmas tree and Pluto fights with them. 

     

Lady and the tramp when they are at the restaurant and Robin Hood stealing money from prince John and my favorite the Jungle Book when Baloo meets Mowgli for the first time plus one or two snippets from the latest films. However the most loved one is about Ferdinand the Bull. I think it was in the 80’s they announced that he would be replaced by the Ugly Duckling and all hell broke lose 🙂 🙂 🙂 It went as far as Swedish Television getting threats and they took is so seriously that the showed that film after the Disney program was over.  We’ve never seen the Ugly Duckling after that 🙂 🙂 🙂 Also this program also decides when to eat and give out the present. We had the present before and ate after some could do the opposite but no one ever ate at 3 pm when Donald Duck was shown on tv 🙂 🙂 🙂

This is what christmas is all about for a me 🙂

I wish You all a Good Yule!

   

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We had sunshine most parts of the day yesterday and were supposed to have some today as well so of course we hadn’t 🙂 🙂 🙂 Instead we had my second favorite weather today, fog and at times really thick fog. Tomorrow we’re supposed to have fog all day so perhaps the sun will show itself then instead 🙂

     

But we didn’t just have fog, tiny, tiny snow flakes fell all day as well but since they were so small and few it isn’t noticeable anywhere on the ground, I can accept snowfall like that 🙂 🙂 It was a nice morning walk despite it being below 0C (32 F) because there was no wind what so ever blowing. Also both Malkolm and Alma behaved pretty well after the first couple of hundred meters (much the same in yards) of the walk.

     

I still, to my own surprise, have christmas feeling. I normally have them late October to some time in the middle of November and then they die out 🙂 🙂 🙂 I guess it can be because I don’t have to go out to scrape the windows of the car, feel well rested and actually just because the snow is falling even though it can’t be seen 🙂 I haven’t felt this well rested in years to be honest but I still can’t promote unemployment unless one is rather wealthy 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m not so I better keep on looking for a job or win the lottery 🙂 🙂

They have removed the blockage in the creek so now the water level is much lower again.

 

It is time for a cup of tea but nothing more, the dogs and I have just eaten some pancakes and that’s enough for me but they and the cat will have their dinners just after this, even though they all had pancakes as well 🙂

     

Have a great day!

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It has been a boring day, hunters were out in the forest all day so no walks, I don’t want to walk there with Alma yet since she finally seems to calm down a lot when walking in the forest. I think we’ll walk there when most people have their Christmas vacations, very little that can stress her moving around then.

     

It looks like the cattle has moved to their winter pastures as well so we’ll have walks there too during christmas vacation, almost no cars will drive on the big road besides that area. Most likely lots of wild hogs if we go out just before the sun starts to rise but with that much open space they’ll not care about us at all.

     

The weather has been grey and dark with misty rain all day as well so none of the dogs were especially happy to be in the garden either. So instead we’ve been napping a lot 🙂 I should have done the laundry but never came around to do it. I won’t get a job next week either I’m afraid so I’ll have plenty of time to do it, at least until I’ve run out of clean clothes 🙂 🙂 🙂

     

We might get some sunshine both tomorrow and on Tuesday so I hope I’ll catch some of that but it will stay warmer here, especially at nights just because of the clouds so I’m not complaining too much 🙂 It is time for that last cup of tea for the day and I think I’ll also have an egg sandwich with blue cheese and some normal hard cheese or perhaps cheese and apricot jam 🙂

I only brought in one of the Camellias and the ones outside look really healthy despite -13 C (8,6 F).

   

Have a great day!

Winter wonderland.

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We woke up to a village covered in white, well covered is a bit much but it is at least more snow on the ground than last time. It made my neighbor happy because it’s her birthday today and she wanted snow at least today and around Christmas 🙂

     

Even I must admit that it looks beautiful outside now and if the weather sites are somewhat right it might stay like this for a week or longer. I often hear that the snow at least makes it less dark but that’s only true if there is some light reflecting on it, I learned that when I moved to the countryside, if it is cloudy it’s just as dark as it is without snow 🙂 🙂 A clear sky and full moon is the best but since a clear sky usually also means nasty cold I prefer to have it cloudy at nights 🙂 🙂

     

I went to the super market this morning, Tuesday mornings are perfect to go there because there’s so little customers there that one can take time to just walk around looking for what one wants to buy and still not be in the way for others 🙂 That’s a dangerous strategy though because it is too easy to find other things to buy 🙂 I made it through without buying anything that wasn’t on the list though 🙂

     

I’ve started to put seeds in the feeder that is hanging in the huge lilacs and the birds of course loves it and I hope it will stop them from eating all the window putty from my windows. I have no idea what it is that makes them love eating it and it is so annoying! Anyway the small birds are happy and so is the Sparrowhawk. The first thing that happened was a Sparrowhawk catching a house sparrow in front of me. I really can’t be angry because they need food too but I do think it could have been polite enough to wait until I had walked in again 🙂

     

It is time for that last cup of tea for the day, I’ve just made a couple of scones and they are good but I don’t like how they smell for some reason. So the faster I eat these the quicker I can make other ones that doesn’t smell like these 🙂 🙂

     

Have a great day!

A bit grumpy after having a nap in my sweater 🙂